FILM REVIEW; Ralph Kramden Resumes His Hunt for the Sure Thing

By A. O. SCOTT

Published: June 10, 2005

When it comes to adapting beloved television sitcoms into feature films, more is almost always less. The great small-screen comedies succeed through familiarity and repetition.

In the original ''Honeymooners,'' to take the example at hand, every episode is pretty much the same as every other. Ralph Kramden cooks up a sure-fire scheme that falls flat, he and Alice argue, Ed Norton makes a few sloppy entrances, and in the end everything is as it was before. Ralph and Alice are in love, Ed and Ralph are best pals, and they all still live in that drab Brooklyn tenement, observed by two cameras and a studio audience.

It is a simple formula, and it can hardly be improved upon. Why would you need 90 minutes, three acts, dozens of sets and locations and multiple character arcs? But then again, why not? Just about every modern TV-land couple owes something to the Kramdens -- Archie and Edith, George and Weezie, Homer and Marge, even the upscale Huxtables -- so you can hardly blame Paramount Pictures for trotting out an updated and expanded version of ''The Honeymooners.''

Since Paramount and CBS, which produced the original show, are now siblings in the Viacom family, there is probably a bit of corporate jargon that describes the product more fully than ''remake'' or ''adaptation.'' Synergistic cannibalism? Cross-over cross-branding? Leading indicator of imaginative bankruptcy? Well, that's too harsh. Superfluous though it may be, ''The Honeymooners'' is not so bad.

The television Kramdens and Nortons were ethnically indeterminate members of the white working class living in Bensonhurst. In the movie, Ed still works for the city sewer system (or rather, the Department of Environmental Protection), and Ralph still drives a city bus. Alice and Trixie wait tables at a local diner. The couples are African-American, and they live in an unspecified section of Brooklyn. (A note to residents and devotees of that borough: don't waste your time trying to identify the neighborhood; the picture was shot in Ireland.)

The continuities and the changes work pretty well, and it is gratifying to see that some of the series's class consciousness -- and, in spite of the Irish locations, its gritty New York-ness -- has survived the passage of time and the change of format. Ralph (Cedric the Entertainer) still plots outlandish ways to get rich -- selling pet cactuses and velour ''man purses'' -- that are really shortcuts to the middle class, a destination toward which Alice (Gabrielle Union) plots the more practical route of home ownership.

Their marriage is still contentious, but less volatile than it used to be. Those ''bang! zoom!'' threats of domestic abuse might offend contemporary sensitivities, much as Ralph's passing reference to ''the Lodge'' sounds absurdly quaint. ''The lodge?'' Alice asks, in the movie's most brilliant meta-joke. ''Who are you, Fred Flintstone?''

Not quite. Cedric the Entertainer has some of Jackie Gleason's improbable physical grace, and a winning manner that makes his moniker, like Gleason's ''Great One,'' seem less like a boast than a simple description. What is missing from his Ralph Kramden, though, is a sense of desperate rage and thwarted pride. And Ms. Union, while charming, must contend with a blandly written part and her own natural sweetness. You don't have to watch too many ''Honeymooners'' episodes to realize how much the show depends on the vinegar of Audrey Meadows's sarcasm.

And also, needless to say, on Art Carney's sublime, noodle-limbed goofiness. Mike Epps, who plays Ed Norton, made his name as Ice Cube's goofy sidekick in ''Next Friday,'' and he does not embarrass himself here. Well, he does, but in a good way. The problem is that he, Cedric and Ms. Union are trapped in characters they can neither reinvent nor fully inhabit.

Still, they do their best, and they graciously allow much of the movie to be stolen by performers less burdened by the weight of the past. Regina Hall, who needs either a movie of her own or a regular half-hour on Comedy Central as soon as possible, turns Trixie Norton from a silly goose into a sexy, mischievous firecracker. John Leguizamo, as an unsavory trainer of racing dogs, riffs wildly, and Carol Woods, as Ralph's dreaded mother-in-law, delivers some pretty good jokes with imperiously perfect timing.

The committee-written script has an impressively high quotient of funny lines, and leaves room for some marvelous ad-libbing. John Schultz's direction can be described as competent, though he often crowds and truncates what should be moments of inspired slapstick. There is 90 minutes worth of plot -- far too much -- which requires a villain (Eric Stoltz as a greedy real estate developer), and an ending that warms the heart while also demonstrating why movies like this are never as good as the shows on which they are based. Change may be good for the characters, but not necessarily for the audience.

Directed by John Schultz; written by Danny Jacobson, David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein and Don Rhymer, based on characters from the CBS Television series; director of photography, Shawn Maurer; edited by John Pace; music by Richard Gibbs; production designer, Charles Wood; produced by David T. Friendly, Marc Turtletaub, Eric C. Rhone and Julie Durk; released by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 90 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.